[Dixielandjazz] Spinal Tap

[Gary Kiser]

"This is Spinal Tap" was directed by Ron Reiner.  What more is there to 
say.  It is dry parody at its best.  You gotta be pretty bent if you 
really thought there were guitar amps that went to 11.

I will admit, I love this kind of humor.  Harry Shearer produced a great 
show on KCRW (perhaps he still does).  It was called "Le Show" when I 
left KCRW, but the show had a different name at the start.  With the 
hundreds of billions of facts and figures running though my brain, I 
can't seem to find the original name of his show.  Anyway, I got to see 
Harry work and I just loved it.

Plus, I was in the UCLA marching band with Simpson's 
producer/director/goofhead David Silverman.  David has found himself a 
nitch in NOLA with his flaming sousaphone.  He has played with/for Ben 
Jaffe, Kirk Joseph, Matt Perrine...  David's kind of humor is MKOH.

All the above was just to support my thumbs-up for "This is Spinal Tap."

All the best, Gary



On 23/01/2011 06:43, eupher dude wrote:
> "This Is Spinal Tap" wasn't a film school project, by any means.  Rob Reiner was several years post-"All In The Family" when he made it.
>
> The core band is Michael McKean, who was Lenny on "Laverne and Shirley", Chris Guest, who later played the 6-fingered man in "The Princess Bride" and directed several movies, and
> Harry Shearer, who now does lots of voices on "The Simpsons" and is a political satirist.  Tap started as a "Saturday Night Live" bit, and grew into a life of its own.
>
> It was also improvised.  The three named above, and Reiner, came up with a story line and scene outlines, with a concept of what had to happen in each scene, and things that
> specifically needed to be said.  The overall scene was totally off-the-cuff.  The music, while decidedly in a heavy metal style including blatantly juvenile sexual content, is amazing
> in both its satire and the quality of performance.  The band not only wrote the music, they performed it.
>
> Later, Chris guest would direct such things as "Waiting For Guffman" "Best In Show" and "A Mighty Wind", all in a similar improvised style. "A Mighty Wind" reuinited Guest, McKean, and Shearer
> in a musical setting...it's a great movie too, which is around 60s folk performers.  Again, the music is written AND performed by the acting company, and it's terrific stuff.
>
> Yes, I happen to LOVE "This Is Spinal Tap".  (They do say they started off in skiffle bands, by the way.)  It's amazing satire, every bit as good and relevant as Tom Lehrer or Spike Jones, just in
> a different style.
>
> There are LOTS of people who don't realize it's all a joke.  It's so well done.  And they keep adding to the legend with things like that interview.  Amazing stuff.
>
> steve
>


Gary Kiser
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